Orange

It’s taken a long time for Intel’s smartphone plans to come to fruition. The company has demoed its processors in mobile devices at several CES events in the past, but has struggled to bring them to market. This year, however, Intel came prepared, announcing a partnership with several manufacturers and carriers that would see Intel’s Medfield platform finally making its way into consumers hands. The first phone was the Lava Xolo X900, released in India in May, while the United Kingdom has been graced with the Orange San Diego, previously known as the Santa Clara. So, how does the pairing of Intel and Android hold up? Find out after the jump.

Orange and Intel unveiled the Orange San Diego here in London today, and we had a chance to go hands-on with the freshly announced device. Not much has changed about the handset since the last time we saw it, except for the new moniker and the inclusion of Orange’s modifications to Android. If you’ve handled an Orange San Francisco or Orange Monte Carlo before, then you know what to expect.

If you’ve been wondering when you’ll be able to see Intel’s first smartphone land in tbe UK, you can wonder no more. Orange and Intel have officially announced that what was once the Santa Clara is now known as the Orange San Diego, following the company’s previous naming schemes with self-branded handsets. Otherwise it’s pretty much the same phone we saw at MWC 2012 with an Intel Atom Z2460 processor clocked at 1.6Ghz.

Intel's Medfield phones are almost upon us: UK carrier Orange has thrown the Santa Clara, one of the first designs to use Intel's Atom chip for mobiles, up on its "coming soon" page, though the smartphone is still in for a name change. Both contract and prepay buying options will be offered with the Santa Clara, which pairs a 1.6GHz Atom CPU and 4.03-inch touchscreen with an 8-megapixel camera.

The Galaxy S III has been revealed this week in London as Samsung's next-level smartphone hero, and the prices are flooding in for UK carriers galore. Starting with Vodafone UK, this carrier gets the device on the 30th of this month (as opposed to the 29th as the rest of Europe will get the device) and will be getting an exclusive on the 32GB model of the device for the first month it's out on the market. While the rest of Europe will be getting the device on the 29th, it seems that the entirety of the UK will have to wait just one more day.

Nokia has officially confirmed the Lumia 610 NFC, its first near-field communications enabled Windows Phone, after the handset was prematurely leaked earlier today. Based on the budget Lumia 610 announced back in February, the NFC variant will initially launch with Orange, promising compatibility with both MasterCard and VISA mobile payment systems.

The HTC One X and One S made their European debut on Monday, impressing us here at SlashGear as well as reviewers across the internet. The phones are expected to ship from retailers tomorrow, and the UK carriers have announced their pricing plans for the handsets. We’ve rounded up all the necessary information, so head on past the jump if you’re interested in picking up either handset and want the best deal. Continue Reading

Ofcom is a regulator over in the UK the overseas things having to do with the mobile ecosystem. The regulator has announced that it is delaying its decision on whether or not to approve Orange and T-Mobile's Everything Everywhere LTE network proposal. Ofcom granted LTE network preliminary approval previously and then gave competitors until April 17 to voice any issues.

LTE is spreading far and wide in the United States, but what about Europe? Adoption has been slow on that side of the world so far. Orange are hoping to turn that around within the next three years, promising that it will bring LTE connectivity to all its European markets by 2015. The pledge was announced yesterday at an event hosted by Orange in Brussels, which included several other goals.

Intel were keen to push their Medfield platform at MWC 2012, announcing various partners, and even a product that would make it to retail, the Orange Santa Clara. The Atom Z2460 single-core processor is clocked at 1.6Ghz, with the phone being able to perform such feats as taking ten photos in under a second, as long as 1080p playback and Intel Wireless Display. But how does the performance really stack up against other phones with only a single core?

Intel has been talking up its Atom Z2460 Medfield processor at MWC 2012, and the Orange "Santa Clara" is the latest carrier win and a confirmed attack on the European market. Running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on the 1.6 GHz x86 processor, with a 4-inch WVGA display and 8-megapixel camera, the Santa Clara tries to convince us that ARM isn't the only company with skills in the cellphone market.

UK carriers Orange and T-Mobile plan to launch a 4G LTE network in the country later this year, combined comms company Everything Everywhere has announced, with 1800MHz trials kicking off in one city come April. Bristol will be the first to get 1800MHz LTE from the carriers, while Orange and T-Mobile subscribers across the UK will be able to use their 3G modem to get the best signal, no matter which of the two carriers they're with, from mid-March.